Boox Go Color 7 Review: The Gen II Verdict for 2026

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The verdict, up front

Is the Boox Go Color 7 Gen II worth $289.99 in 2026

The Boox Go Color 7 review question has a clean answer in 2026: yes if you want colour, every reading app, physical page-turn buttons and the option to write, all in a body that weighs about 195 g. No if price is the deciding factor, because two rivals undercut it. At $289.99 it costs the same as the Kindle Colorsoft and runs far more than Amazon’s store, but it ships without a pen, and the pen bundle is $322.99.

One thing to settle first, because it decides which device you are reading about. Boox has sold two models under this name. The first-generation Go Color 7 listed at $219.99 in white and $249.99 in black, ran Android 12 and takes no pen at all; Boox’s comparison table lists its stylus support as N/A, and its store shows every variant sold out. The second generation, listed on Boox’s store in April 2025, is the one this review now covers. What you get: a 7-inch Kaleido 3 colour panel at 300 ppi in black and white and 150 ppi in colour, the full Google Play Store, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.1, a speaker and microphone, and support for the BOOX InkSense and InkSense Plus pens. What you don’t get: a pen in the standard box, or cellular data.

Specs

Boox Go Color 7 Gen II specs

Display

7″ Kaleido 3 colour e-ink, 1680 x 1264

Resolution

300 ppi black and white / 150 ppi colour

Front light

Warm and cold (CTM)

OS

Android 13 with Google Play

Memory

4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage, microSD

Weight

About 195 g, 6.4 mm thick

Wireless

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1

Battery

2,300 mAh

Pen

BOOX InkSense or InkSense Plus, sold separately or bundled

Price

$289.99, $322.99 with InkSense Plus

The form factor is still the headline. Seven inches and about 195 g is paperback territory: it fits a coat pocket, a handbag or a glove box. Boox’s own comparison table shows the Gen II and Gen I identical on panel, processor, memory, battery, thickness and weight. The differences are the pen support and one Android version.

Price

Boox Go Color 7 price and where to buy in 2026

On the official Onyx Boox US store the Go Color 7 Gen II is US$289.99 on its own and US$322.99 with the InkSense Plus in the box, and both were in stock when we checked on 18 October 2026. The InkSense Plus on its own is US$45.99, so the bundle costs US$33 more than the bare device and saves US$12.99 against buying the pen later. The plain InkSense shows sold out, which makes the bundle the simple route if you plan to write. The first-generation Go Color 7 still has a store page at US$219.99, but every variant is sold out, so treat any listing you find for it as old stock.

Inside Boox’s own range the Gen II sits US$20 above the mono Go 7 at US$269.99, which takes the same pens, so colour costs about US$20. Outside Boox it has real competition. The Bigme B751C S is US$249 with a stylus and a protective case in the box, a 7-inch colour panel at the same 300 and 150 ppi, and Android 14, which makes it the cheaper way to write on colour e-ink at this size by about US$74 against the pen bundle. The Kobo Clara Colour at US$179.99 is the cheapest colour reader of the group if you never need Android apps or a pen.

Release + software

Release dates, the two generations, and software updates

The first Go Color 7 reached Boox’s store in mid-2024 as its pocket colour reader, and the Gen II followed in April 2025, listed alongside the mono Go 7. If you are deciding whether a Gen I still makes sense second-hand, or want the line-by-line differences, our Boox Go Color 7 Gen 2 breakdown covers what changed. This review stays on the model you can buy new.

On software, the Gen II runs Android 13 and Boox states on the product page that it provides free firmware updates for all models for more than three years after launch. Its handwriting features, such as templates, handwriting-to-text conversion and the lasso tool, carry a Boox note to update to the latest firmware first, so do that before judging the writing experience. Boox also includes 10 GB of free Onyx cloud storage per account for notes.

In practice

What the Go Color 7 Gen II actually does

The Go Color 7 reads first. Kindle, Kobo, Libby, Google Play Books and a browser all install through Google Play, and Boox’s own reader handles 26 file formats, including EPUB, PDF, MOBI, AZW3 and CBZ. Colour is muted, which is typical of Kaleido 3 at 150 ppi, but it is enough for cover art, colour-coded highlights and the occasional comic. Physical page-turn buttons, a G-sensor for auto-rotation, and a built-in speaker for text-to-speech or audiobooks round out the reading side.

Writing is what Gen II adds. With an InkSense or InkSense Plus, which Boox rates at 4,096 pressure levels and which connects without Bluetooth and charges over USB-C, you get Boox’s note app with brushes, colours, shape tools and handwriting conversion. Treat it as a pocket notebook for quick notes and margin annotations, not a replacement for a 10-inch writing tablet: a 7-inch page is small for long-form notes or full A4 PDFs.

Where it breaks

Honest drawbacks of the Go Color 7 Gen II

The Gen II is a colour e-reader that runs every store and takes quick notes in a coat pocket.From this review

How it compares

Boox Go Color 7 vs Bigme B751C S vs Kindle Colorsoft vs Kobo Libra Colour

The Go Color 7 Gen II’s closest rivals are the Bigme B751C S (same idea, Android 14, pen in the box), the Kindle Colorsoft (same price, Amazon’s store) and the Kobo Libra Colour (Kobo’s 7-inch colour reader with page-turn buttons and an optional pen). Here is how they line up on the axes that decide the buy.

The pattern is clean. Pick the Go Color 7 Gen II if you want Boox’s software and build with every reading app, the Bigme B751C S if the lowest price for colour plus a pen matters most, the Kindle Colorsoft if your library lives on Amazon, and the Kobo Libra Colour if you read Kobo books and borrow through OverDrive. If you only read and never need Android, the Kobo Clara Colour at US$179.99 is cheaper than all four.

Use cases

Who should buy the Go Color 7 Gen II

Buy if: you read across several stores (Kindle, Kobo, Libby), want pocket carry and page-turn buttons, and want the option of quick handwritten notes backed by Boox’s stated three-plus years of firmware updates. Take the US$322.99 InkSense Plus bundle if writing is likely.

Skip if: you read only on Amazon (the Kindle Paperwhite is US$199.99 in black and white), you want the cheapest pen-ready colour device (the Bigme B751C S at US$249), or you mainly write, where a 10-inch or larger tablet such as a Boox Note Air or a Kindle Scribe gives you a usable page.

For the broader lineup, see Onyx Boox 2026, and for the phone-shaped Palma line, best e-ink phones.

Verdict

Boox Go Color 7 Gen II, the Templacity verdict

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